Heavy smoke and technical problems delayed the final evacuation of the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation as community members continued to flee an out-of-control wildfire Sunday.
Ralph Caribou, the UCN coordinator for the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, is actively working on evacuations. The chief, a councilor and 40 residents were still trying to flee the area Sunday morning, Caribou said in an email to the CBC.
“Heavy smoke continues this morning,” he wrote. A helicopter and a plane helping the evacuation effort had engine trouble Saturday because of the smoke, Caribou said, and were unable to take off.
Trains from the Keewatin Railway Company were called to evacuate the rest. Caribou said the boats are also prepared just in case.
The wildfire near Mathias Colombe is now approximately 230 square kilometers in size and is less than a kilometer from the community, the Manitoba Wildfire Service wrote in an email to CBC Sunday.
WATCH | Out-of-control forest fire in northern Manitoba prompts evacuation:
Wildfires have prompted the evacuation of a First Nation in northern Manitoba
An out-of-control wildfire in northern Manitoba has forced nearly 2,000 people from their homes on the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation.
Additional support is being provided to the local fire department to ensure that any new outbreaks or flying embers are dealt with and to ensure that critical infrastructure or individual homes are not damaged, the email said.
The Northwest Territories sent four single-engine water bombers and a surveillance plane. Twenty firefighters from Ontario will arrive today to tackle wildfires in the northwest, the Manitoba Wildfire Service said.
Approximately 2,000 people have been evacuated from the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, Red Cross spokesman Jason Small said in an email to the CBC. While the majority of residents were transported by train, the remaining 30 to 40 people will be evacuated today, according to the Red Cross.
Crews from the Keewatin Railway Company, privately owned by Mathias Colomb and two other First Nations, worked around the clock to get most of the residents out of the community safely. (Submitted by Anthony Mayham, KRC)
The Canadian military sent two transport planes on Saturday to help with the evacuation. One of them picked up 41 people and took them about 200 kilometers south to The Pas, a spokesman at Canadian Forces Base 17 in Winnipeg said.
Another military plane was sent earlier on Friday to transport people to Winnipeg – about 700 kilometers to the southeast – but was unable to land there due to poor visibility.
“The Sky Was Yellow”
Charmaine Green, a resident of the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, is the front desk receptionist at the community’s medical center. She fled to Winnipeg on Friday.
She said the fire was so close to the medical center on Friday that hoses and sprinklers were placed near the building.
Green said she and another staff member were in the office for three days directing calls about the evacuation process before co-workers knocked on the door to tell them the fire was getting closer.
Charmaine Green, who works at the community medical center, said the fire was so close that sprinklers and hoses were deployed to the building. (Walter Bernal/CBC)
“The sky was yellow and dark gray clouds could be seen rolling in. It was hard to breathe outside.’
Green is relieved to have escaped and said she hopes all the children and those with respiratory problems were evacuated.
She said Mathias Colomb residents were used to smoke from nearby wildfires in the summer, but she had never seen an evacuation in the 11 years she lived there.
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